Welcome back to The Cookie Elf File … and to easy cookie recipes! About once a week, The Elf sends you cookie recipes, cookie trivia and simple baking tips to give you easy ways to bake homemade cookies.

Why Is Everyone Talking About Silicone Mats?

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Cookie Recipe of the Week: Peanut Butter Blossom Cookies - AKA Hershey Kiss Cookies

Image: The Cookie Elf

Freda developed the recipe as a treat for her grandchildren and entered it in the ninth Pillsbury Bake-Off contest in 1957, but the recipe failed to clinch the grand prize.

Though a “mere” runner up, the cookies have since appeared on nearly every kitchen table in America – thanks in large part to the Hershey Company, which printed the recipe on its bags of Hershey’s Kisses.

Freda got her credit due, though posthumously, when the recipe was inducted into the Pillsbury Bake-Off Hall of Fame in 1999 in honor of the contest’s fiftieth anniversary.

One fun bit of cookie trivia: during the recipe’s induction, Freda’s daughter, Jo Anne Smith Lytle, told reporters that her mother had originally named the cookies Black-eyed Susans. Pillsbury renamed them.

Prep time: about 10-15 minutes
Bake time: 8-10 minutes
Makes about 3 dozen

Get the full recipe for Peanut Butter Blossom Cookies … and check out all kinds of easy brownies recipes on our Hershey Kiss Cookies Pinterest Board.

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Cookie Baking Tip: Save Mess When Rolling Ball-Shaped Cookies

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See more helpful cookie baking tips on The Elf’s Baking Tips Pinterest Board .

How to Make Cookies that Are Uniformly-Sized

Cookie scoop sets in graduated sizes: super handy for different types of drop cookies	Pro-grade (but no pro-priced) cookie scoops from Cake Boss, Oxo, Baker's Secret	Scoop it: Make uniform cookies with silicone mat and cookie scoop set

More Easy Kiss Cookie Recipes

Happy baking,